Admissions

Reduction of Planned Admission Number at Rushey Mead Academy for September 2019.

Rushey Mead has received approval from the Department for Education to reduce its Planned Admission Number to 324 from September 2019 after two years of admitting 378 pupils in year 7.

Rushey Mead Academy, part of The Mead Educational Trust, has been meeting the need for increased student places in Leicester, admitting over 50 additional pupils in year 7 for the last two years. The Academy has been accommodating additional pupils in temporary modular buildings whilst plans for a permanent building to be added to the site to provide additional capacity progressed. The Academy, however, faced a difficult decision upon learning that plans for a permanent building have now been put on hold. This lack of a permanent building would have had a detrimental impact on the quality of teaching and learning at Rushey Mead. Additional students would have had to have been managed in temporary accommodation for the foreseeable future, creating a congested site with little room for PE space, dining space and specialist subject provision. The Academy therefore, reluctantly, submitted a request to the Secretary of State for Education to reduce its PAN to 324 for September 2019, a request which was approved on 14th February 2019.

Although Rushey Mead is reluctantly reducing its PAN, The Mead Educational Trust, through its three secondary schools – Rushey Mead Academy, Castle Mead Academy and Hamilton Academy – will provide over 800 year 7 school places from September 2019. Therefore parents will still be able to access the first class education offered by The Mead Educational Trust.

Castle Mead Academy, the Trust’s newest school, will open in the city centre in September 2019 where 240 places will be available, providing parents with additional choice. Castle Mead will replicate the education offered at Rushey Mead and build upon its outstanding teaching and learning. A Funding Agreement has been secured for this and the Principal Designate is in post. Site plans are already well advanced and subject leaders have been appointed.